In prior power conversion systems, the insertion of common mode voltage was used to re-center DC balance. An example of a power conversion system is General Electric Company's 3300 volt IGCT converter system. A need exists to improve the system performance and ratings as poor noise to signal ratios can occur during certain settings, such as low power levels. The distribution of power extracted from the positive half and negative half DC link capacitance in a three-level pulse with modulation (“PWM”) system does not afford consistent balanced operation in light of disturbance that instantaneously modifies the positive versus negative power that flows in the load. The maintenance of voltage balance in a three-level PWM power conversion system is shown to be enhanced by the addition of a power carrying fourth wire connected to the normal three phase load circuit.
The level of peak current that is required to convert a certain level of power acts as a limitation for application of the conversion system. Changes in this conversion factor always effects the application of the power converter. An additional benefit to the use of this fourth connection is that the addition of a third harmonic injection current can increase the level of output power without increasing the peak level of current that the converter must handle.
Added protection in the form of a fault handling reaction is typical to subdue excessive system voltage from reaching portions of the system. This type of fault handling can be streamlined by the added separation afforded by this proposed solution. Added system robustness is achieved since the fault handling events that had to be used to protect the conversion equipment for certain fault conditions are now limited to only the positive or negative half of the power conversion configuration and thus the converters can be designed to tolerate such faults without the need for the diversion of system voltage.
There is a desire, therefore, for an improved power conversion system which improves signal to noise ratio when power flow is low, when the voltage is high, or when the rate of change of power is high while effecting consistent balanced operation.